Page 4 of A King So Savage
Wait. Should I have drunk that so quickly? What if it’s drugged, too? What if they poisoned me? Stupid, stupid, stupid! I just swallowed it down without any protest...
“It’s only water, Miss Blue.” The man holding her spoke quietly, his breath tickling her cheek. His fingers loosened their hold; however, it was infinitely more disturbing when he began stroking her. Softly. Confidently. As though he knew she required soothing and this was the most effective way of handling her. “Besides, I’ve already drugged you once today.”
Those fingers coasted and brushed over the skin of her thighs, smoothing away the marks they’d already imprinted.
Ava wanted to grab his hand and make him stop but didn’t dare.
“Where am I?” Her hoarse words came out all soft and wobbly. Weak.
That was a mistake. She could not show weakness in this den of lions and hyenas. Not with this pack of creatures waiting to rip her apart. Not while she sat like a prize in the ironlike basket of their leader’s lap.
“Don’t leave our guest drowning in suspense, dear brother.” Oliver’s eyes raked over Ava with insolent desire. He took a seat in an overstuffed leather chair opposite the desk, one leg crossing over the other.
Ava shuddered. Her gaze darted around the room in an attempt at making sense of her current situation. Things were slowly coming into focus, the blurred edges sharpening and stabbing her awareness with unrelenting violence.
The space was huge. Cavernous. It was obviously an office of some sort. Books lined the walls along with several sets of floor-to-ceiling windows draped in sumptuous drifts of black brocade. The drapes were closed so Ava could not determine if it was day or night.
Everything was both lavish and restrained—the hues and décor a harmonious, gothic-like blend of rich fabrics, ornately carved dark wood, and black iron sconces.
Another man, younger than the one named Paulie, stood along the wood-paneled walls. Like the others, he watched her intently. He was handsome, with light blue eyes, built like a mountain, and just as threatening.
“Shut the fuck up, Oliver,” the man holding Ava said. Tipping her chin up with a forefinger, his lips curved, revealing brilliant, even white teeth. “You are here, little lamb. With me.”
He was so savagely dazzling that Ava could only blink in dazed wonder. His presence commanded her attention. Demanded her focus. He was seriously gorgeous.
But something terrifying lurked below the perfect surface of his features. Something Ava uneasily recognized. This man was dangerous. Calculating. Intelligent and, perhaps most frightening of all, patient. It emanated from him like an expensive cologne. This man would plot and plan and wait in plain sight while destroying his enemy with a friendly smile.
He reminded Ava of a predator waiting to strike. A hunter stalking its next meal. A lion ready to devour a lamb once it settled down from its fright.
She was that lamb.
“I don’t understand,” she finally whispered when it seemed he was waiting for an answer. “What is this place? And who are you?”
“Don’t you remember me, Ava Bella Blue?” the man murmured, cupping her jaw within his huge hand. Blunt fingers dug into her skin, forcing her to meet his gaze. “I’m crushed. Because you see, I never forgot you. I’ve dreamed of this moment for ages. And now, you are here. As beautiful as I remember. And even sweeter than I dreamed.”
The cruelty in that grip and the jewel-like depths of this man’s eyes sent fear trickling down Ava’s spine. Recognition rushed through her like a rogue wave. It was enough to make her sick. Hot bile rose in her throat, burning and sticky. With great difficulty, she swallowed it down.
“You are friends with my brother,” she acknowledged in a whisper. “And my father… my father worked for you.”
“Ahh, youdoremember me.” His grin widened while those cruel fingers tightened just enough to leave a faint mark along her jawline. “Although I wouldn’t say your brother and I were exactly friends. Would you?”
Ava did not answer. How could she when her mind was in a whirl?
Kingston Vaughn Winter.
King.
A man who showed no mercy to those who crossed him. A man whose shadowy reputation as the ruler of Bitter Springs and everything surrounding it had only deepened over the past ten years. A man whose rise to power was both mystery and legend. At the age of thirty, Kingston Winter had a fortune at his fingertips, a city under his heel, and an endless list of people who wanted to see him dethroned.
Ava first met him when she was fifteen. Kingston was six years older and already a mysterious figure. Tall. Dark. Obviously handsome. Painfully intelligent. With his own father dead, Kingston came around their house often. Maybe he was unnaturally interested in their family life. Maybe he was simply making sure Ava’s father, a successful estate lawyer, handled his affairs properly. Or maybe he enjoyed escaping the frantic whirl of college life during his senior year. Ava wasn’t sure. But he was a frequent guest of her father’s, and she always carefully avoided him.
Because there was something unnerving in the way Kingston watched her back then. He would smile as if he knew a secret he would never tell. An air of blatant sexuality clung to the man, and Ava remembered her girlfriends giggling over what it would be like to kiss Kingston Winter.
He was every teenage girl’s fantasy.
Admittedly, Ava had often fantasized about him. Wondered how firm Kingston’s lips would be against hers. If his large hands would be rough or gentle. And she wasn’t sure why, but she was certain his touch would be brutal. Savage. Forbidden, but worth it. In her innocence, she recognized Kingston’s appeal and found it both confusing and infinitely fascinating.
But that was years ago. Before the man holding her became one of the most feared men along the eastern seaboard. He was a ghost of sorts. A monster strolling in to wreak havoc then sitting back so he could admire the carnage left behind.